The Iola boys basketball team will have to play Santa Fe Trail at least two more times before the season ends. But in the first match-up Saturday night, the Mustangs looked undaunted, winning the championship game of the Ike Cearfoss Preseason Tournament at Central Heights High School 67-53.
The Mustangs are now a perfect 3-0 to start the year.
Despite the fact that Iola won by double digits, the game was far from in control.
Early in the fourth quarter, Santa Fe Trail trailed by just three points and was threatening to tie it up when a three from senior Cale Barnhart sparked run-out layups from fellow guards Isaac Vink and Blake Ashmore.
While the majority of Iola’s points have come from the post this season, when the game was on the line it was the smaller guys on the court that helped take control of the game.
“We have the ability in games to go really big or go small and play with a lot of good guards,” head coach Luke Bycroft said. “Every game calls for something different and tonight we needed our guards.”
Santa Fe Trail was outmanned as many teams who faced the Mustangs are (senior posts Evan Sigg and Ethan Holloway led the team in scoring with 20 and 14 points respectively) but they were doing their best to make up for it, keeping Iola within reach by bombing it from the outside.
“When you have a good shooting team like (Santa Fe Trail) they try to get in the paint and then kick it out,” Bycroft said. “Defensively our help was late and we were letting them get too deep. When they get too deep they get more open to kick-outs. We’ve got to stop those sooner and that was our main problem.”
With the win, the Mustangs are already 2-0 versus Pioneer League opponents before league play begins on Tuesday when they travel to take on Burlington.
THE IOLA Fillies faced West Franklin earlier in the day for the third-place game. The Fillies lost 46-26.
Already down their leader in point guard Colbi Riley, the Fillies were dealt another blow roughly five minutes before tip-off when senior starting guard Chloe Gardner injured her right leg in pregame warm-ups making her unavailable to play.
“It’s a terrible break but we didn’t give up,” head coach Becky Carlson said. “I mean, what are you going to do. We’ve got to keep playing for both our pride and our teammates.”
Down two starters, the Fillies did their best to hang in there but just couldn’t overcome a long West Franklin team.
Juniors Ellie Carson and Piper Moore stepped up on the scoring end putting up 8 each.
“I thought the girls that played did a good job,” Carlson said. “I thought Piper did a great job and Ellie once again scored for us. The injuries put everyone in a different position on the court. I thought we looked a lot better today than we did on Thursday so we’ll keep making adjustments and figure it out.”
The Fillies will play at Burlington on Tuesday and hope to have Riley back.
Iola boys (14-18-15-20—67) (FG/3pt-FT-F-TP) Sigg 9/0-2-1-20, Holloway 4/0-6-3-14, Ashmore 2/1-0-0-7, Bycroft 1/0-4-1-6, Rogers 1/0-4-3-6, Vink 2/0-0-3-4, Barnhart 0/1-0-0-3, Leonard 0/1-0-0-3, Miller 0/0-2-1-2, Regehr 0/0-2-4-2. TOTALS: 19/3-20-29-67
Santa Fe Trail boys (9-13-19-13—53) (FG/3pt-FT-F-TP) Lone 4/3-3-5-20, Huffman 1./3-3-3-14, Berckerundt 1/1-5-4/10, Herren 2/1/0-3-7, Nichols 1/0-0-3-2, Dunaway 0/0-0-1-0, Stone 0/0-0-1-0, Baker 0/0-0-1-0, Jarrio 0/0-0-2-0. TOTALS: 9/8-11-23-53.
Iola girls (4-9-6-7—26) (FG/3pt-FT-F-TP) Carson 4/0-0-5-8, Moore ½-0-0-8, Holloway 2/0-0-1-4, Sutterby 1/0-0-2-2, Bauer 0/0-2-1, Sprague 1/0-0-1-2, Morrison 0/0-0-1-0, Shelby 0/0-0-1-0. TOTALS: 9/2-2-19-26.
West Franklin girls (8-14-12-12—46) (FG/3pt-FT-F-TP) Sheldon 4/1-3-3-14, Flory 5/0-3-2-13, Ruger 4/0-0-1-8, Harman 2/0-0-3-4, Saotion 2/0-0-2-4, McCurry 0/0-2-3-2, Hutchison 0/0-1-3-1. TOTALS: 17/1-9-18-46.
